Five General Curia came together for the spiritual exercises

Fr. Enrique Sánchez González,
presiding over one of the Eucharistic
celebrations during the retreat,
which was attended
by nine Comboni missionaries.

Aided by a mild and cool climate, supplied by the mountains that surround the vast Lake Como, the three missionaries sisters of the PIME (Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions) and the 27 missionaries men – Comboni Missionaries, Consolata, Xaverian, and PIME – have meditated in silence for six days, directed by Fr. Giuseppe Ronco, a Consolata missionary, who, through his two conferences daily, suggested plentiful and illuminating passages from the Bible and pointed out several examples of men and women of God, who left in the history of the Church an example of true Christian life and deep missionary vision.

The initiative of the members of the General Curia of the Missionary Institutes to do the retreat together is part of a long tradition that is repeated every two years, always in different places. In turn, each Institute organizes and suggests one of their communities for this purpose. This year, it was the turn of the Xaverian Missionaries, founded by bishop St. Guido Maria Conforti, to provide for the place of the retreat in their community of Tavernerio, in northern Italy.

Fr. Claudio Lurati,
Fr. Enrique Sánchez G.
e Fr. Umberto Pescantini.
 

The missionaries, enlightened by the word of God and nourished by personal prayer, meditated on some issues such as the Love of God, Creation, Jesus Christ priest and missionary of the Father, to be a disciple and missionary with a new heart in the secular city, to recognize fragility and, finally, the Mother of God. The purpose of each of the conferences was to help the participants to reflect on what was necessary “to be put in order” in their personal lives, in relationship with God, with others and with creation.

For a missionary, to do a retreat in silence, is nothing more than to seek God more deeply, and then to be able to find him in many ways in the Crucifix, that is, in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the people of all cultures and in all circumstances of life, in the unfathomable beauty of creation that surrounds him, to discover Him in the simple personal commitments of everyday life... It is the teaching that reveals the many testimonies of great men and women who have sought the true face of God throughout their life.